Le corps touareg désarticulé ou l'impensé politique

This review of Les Touaregs: Portrait en fragments, a collection of articles by Hélène Claudot-Hawad, formulates three major criticisms. It objects to the postulate that a precolonial Tuareg nation existed - a postulate without any basis in a founding legend or myth, nor in any historical instance. Criticism is also directed at the methodology. The latter consists in making references to literary works, which are restricted to Hawad's poetry, and transposing the data extracted from them into politics. Odd oversights in the bibliography are also pointed out. These twelve articles present Tuareg societies as though they were an ossified whole frozen in a place outside history, a presentation that flatters an imaginary past.